Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Since my system is starting to move from theoretical to actual, I thought I'd start a new topic here.

I have a carpenter friend of mine coming over this week to help me construct the project so I'm needing to be aware of any major flaws in my thinking as soon as possible. I'm attaching a drawing of the plan. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

System will consist of:
-567 liter (150 gallon) aquarium
-378 liter (100 gallon Rubber-maid stock tank) Sump
-378 liter growbed area (2 50 gallon Rubber-maid stock tank)
-Flourescent and HPS lighting

The plan is that the Fish Tank would overflow into the sump (using a no-hole siphon/water bridge). A pump in the sump will water the growbeds. And then the growbeds drain into the tank through a simple loop siphon. I realize my grow bed space should be more than what is currently planned, but I'm thinking that I'll also have outdoor growbeds connected through a basement window that is behind this system.

My biggest concern at the moment is how much vertical distance is needed between the growbed and the fish tank water in order for the loop siphon to work.

Plan of system.

Plan of system.

Hey Elginite:
The no-holes overflow can just be a regular drain pipe if I'm reading your diagram correctly.

Hi Don,
Yes it could be just a drain pipe. I don't want to drill any holes in the glass tank, however. I'm a little concerned about that.

I meant Dave... sorry about that.

Oh OK I understand.

Some folks put elbows on the end of the loop and this allows less vertical drop, without it you'd need almost a foot to the water line for the siphon to stay going (based on my experience).

My system was set up just like your drawing, with four beds each with a siphon. The drawback to having the sump immediately after the fish tank is that solids accumulate in the sump and have to be pumped up to the beds. Its nicer to have the fish solids land in a grow bed but of course this is tricky in a basement where there is limited vertical fall.

At the end of my basement system I had the sump full of gravel, with an overturned bucket making a space for the pump to sit in. Plants could have been grown in the sump this way. Imagine the sump in your diagram with gravel in it and the right 50 gallon bed gone. This would limit your sump water volume. You might find space for the other 50 gallon bed under the lights. One advantage of putting plants in a gravel-filled sump would be that you would have more vertical height for those plants.

Another benefit would be that since the pump water has been filtered by the sump gravel, the higher plant containers could be planted walls, towers, NFT channels, or what-have-yous.

Your setup is pretty similar to what I have going ATM, a 30 gallon aquarium, and I plan to put a 70 gallon Rubbermaid down there which is currently a block of solid ice outside right now. I had planned to put the fish in the 70 gallon tank, but looking at your diagram it may be quite nice to keep them in glass where they can be enjoyed. However, no-holes overflows make me nervous!

So a foot between the bottom of the growbeds and the water line would be enough for the loop siphon? I'll probably want at least a foot in that space anyway to get access to the tank.

I'm thinking your idea of the having the tank flow into a grow bed is a smart way to go. I could have that growbed trickle into a sump that then could be pumped to the other growbeds above.

It looks like the way you have your tank flow into the sump would be a simpler way with a hole in the side and a venturi-style drain. Is doing some sort of no-holes overflow going to be a headache to keep going? I really don't want to drill a hole in my nice big tank if I don't have to...

This might be a preferred setup. With the tank draining through a u-siphon into a small box with an overflow into the growbeds. Then, the sump is under the grow beds with a pump that gets the water back to the tank.

Sure, that's a classic CHIFT PIST there. I like that setup. You can also have beds above the fish tank after the pump, that would drain into the fish tank. I.e., FT -> beds -> sump -> pump -> other beds -> FT

PLEASE DON'T USE A NO-HOLES OVERFLOW. If i had that warning a few weeks ago i would not have lost 220 fish!

FF: Thanks for the warning. And, I'm sorry about you lost all those fish.

By the way, I really like your setup with the growbeds built into the landscaping. I'm thinking of something similar for growbeds in front of our house. Only the front of our house receives much sunlight, but they have to fit into the landscape nicely.

No holes overflows have their drawbacks, like needing to be re-primed regularly to make sure they don't stop due to developing a bubble. Anywhere I have used no holes overflows, I make sure there is another type of overflow as well and/or at least two of them so that hopefully if one stops from a bubble perhaps the other will still be working.

As to your second set up where the fish tank overflows into the growbeds and they drain into the sump, that is definitely the way to go. That way you could have the growbeds lower down to allow more space for plants and lights above the beds.

How big is the sump? I would stick with the larger deeper sump in any case as you want to have enough play there if you add more growbeds or anything. Also, more water in the system makes for more stability.